


Don't Need Forgiving

by sophinisba



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Community: kink_bingo, Community: kinkme_merlin, Dirty Talk, M/M, Prostitution, Roleplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-30
Updated: 2011-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-24 04:54:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur doesn't need to have sex with strangers for money. He just wants to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Need Forgiving

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://kinkme-merlin.livejournal.com/2936.html?thread=10599288#t10599288) at the Merlin kink meme and for the "prostitution/sex work" square on my kink_bingo card.

"How much?"

Arthur hands over the stack of bills and Merlin flicks through them, humming, impressed. "Not bad, not bad at all. You're really getting good at this, aren't you? Maybe you've found your true calling."

Arthur snorts, calculating how much more he can earn in an hour at his real job, how much money Camelot Inc. earns every _minute_ , and then determinedly pushes those thoughts away. "Yeah, it was a good night," he agrees.

"Yeah?" says Merlin, slipping the cash in his back pocket and sliding his arms around Arthur's waist. "Tell me about it. Tell me how much you love whoring yourself out."

"Four guys tonight. You saw the first one in the bar."

"That giant, yeah?"

Arthur nods. "Didn't talk, didn't want me to talk, just wanted a blowjob in the alley."

"Mmm, and you loved that, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Arthur admits, remembering the rough gravel under the frayed knees of his jeans, the strong fingers in his hair, thick cock shoving bluntly into his throat. The sweaty wad of bills that passed from the stranger's hand to his.

"I saw you having a drink with Lancelot a little later."

"Handjob in the toilets."

Merlin shakes his head. "Of all the guys you wouldn't think would ever need to pay –"

"Lance doesn't need to pay," Arthur says quickly.

"So how come he's your most regular customer?"

Arthur shrugs. "It's just what works for him. It's not always about what we need, is it?"

"I'm just saying if a guy that hot wanted to shove his hand down my jeans, and my boyfriend wasn't complaining? There would be no charge."

"Then he wouldn't want it." Arthur can hear the hard, impatient edge coming into his voice, the old defensiveness of _look, you don't understand._ And that's unfair, he reminds himself. No one's tried harder to understand than Merlin. No one else has done nearly as much to try to make it work. Still…

"Right, fine, I'll give up my dream of shagging Lancelot and let you two have your special kinky bond," Merlin says, too cheerfully, so much like his regular self that it makes Arthur squirm. It's better when his voice goes cold again and he says, "Next?"

"Sigan," Arthur breathes.

"Good old Cedric." Merlin rolls his eyes. "That was when you came back here."

"Did you follow his car?"

Merlin nods. "You're mine, Arthur. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. You know that."

"Yeah." Arthur has the impulse to kiss him then but he lets it pass. This isn't the time.

"I suppose he had you crawl around on the floor a bit?"

"He made me beg."

"What did he make you say?"

Arthur has to take a couple breaths before he can get himself to repeat it, pretend it's just words, pretend he didn't mean them the last time he spoke them: "Command me, master. Please, I'll do anything you want. Just please, please fuck me."

"Huh. And how come you never talk to me like that?"

"Because you don't pay me enough, obviously."

Arthur isn't expecting the slap but it doesn't feel wrong either. He doesn't cry out or jerk away, just sets his shoulders back and looks down.

"You work for me, and I give you what you need," Merlin says.

"Yes sir."

"You charged him extra for the show, I assume."

"Of course."

"And he fucked you?"

"Yes."

Merlin smiles. "And that wasn't enough?"

"I almost called you then, but there was this guy in the lobby. I don't know, he had a girl with him, but she was so young I didn't think – I just had this feeling."

"You've got instincts for this. Like I said, you're a natural."

"He looked like he wanted to spend some money, and I was back here so I had my stuff."

"That was when you changed into your mid-rent outfit." Merlin's got his hands on the fly of Arthur's chinos now and Arthur lets himself lean into it. The recitation's winding up.

"So I started chatting him up and, yeah, turns out he's from Norway, just in town for a conference this weekend and thought he'd take his daughter on a little vacation, since he doesn't want to let her travel on her own."

"Ah, that's nice, a good family man."

"Yeah." Arthur grins without irony. "And he paid me more than Sigan did, just to have a few drinks with him and then go back to his room and let him blow me."

"Oh, Arthur," Merlin says, palming Arthur's dick through his underwear, "I love how after everything else you did tonight you get hard just talking about money. You'd go for the businessmen all the time if you could, wouldn't you?"

"It was just so _easy_."

It's not, most of the time. He wouldn't be able to get away with this at a real business hotel. It's easier at the kind of pub where, yes, most people probably own Camelot products, but they don't know what Uther Pendragon's son looks like.

Still, there's something about the smooth, casually careful way men like Olaf handle large sums of money. The cool satisfaction in their eyes when they watch him take it, when they think a few hundred quid means the world to him. Moments like that, it does.

"Arthur," Merlin says, gently calling him back to the present – the hotel room with its loud air conditioner, the bed behind his knees, Arthur's half-open clothing and Merlin's hands all over him.

"You were great tonight, baby."

"I was."

"You were smart, you were professional, were fucking hot, and you earned that money all on your own."

"Fucking deserved it."

"Fucking right. Just you, with me looking out for you. You had a good night's work. And you're done now."

Arthur doesn't say anything, just lets Merlin crowd him, touch him, poke and prod and soothe and caress him everywhere he's sore and used.

"You're done being my whore, but you're still mine."


End file.
